Global Stratification

• Global South


  Refers to countries that are less economically developed and industrialized compared to the Global North
• Third World


  Refers to countries that did not belong to either the capitalist First World or communist Second World during the Cold War
• How a new conception of global relations emerged from the experiences of Latin American Countries

  1. Dependency theory

  2. World System Theory
• Dependency theory


  • Resources flow from a "periphery" of poor and underdeveloped states to a "core" of wealthy states, enriching the latter at the expense of the former
  • Underdevelopment is mainly caused by the peripheral position of affected countries in the world economy
• World System Theory


  • Established on a three-level hierarchy consisting of core, periphery, and semi-periphery areas
  • Core countries dominate and exploit the peripheral countries for labor and raw materials
  • Peripheral countries are dependent on core countries for capital
• Newly discovered lands outside Europe were divided into two - the west belonging to the Crown of Castile (now part of Spain) and the east belonging to the Portuguese Empire


  1494
• Treaty of Tordesillas - agreements between King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile and King John II of Portugal establishing a new demarcation line between the two crowns


  1494
• Cold War


  Ongoing political rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies that developed after World War II
• First World


  Capitalist, industrialized, democratic countries allied with the US
• Second World


  Industrialized, communist countries of the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellites
• Third World


  Countries that did not belong to either the First World or Second World, often referring to poor, underdeveloped countries
• Global North

  Developed, industrialized countries
• Global South

  Developing countries, often in Africa, Latin America, and Asia
• Economic Development


  Advancement in technology, transition from agriculture to industry, and improvement in living standards
• What is included in the Global North

  • G8 countries
  • US
  • Canada
  • EU member states
  • Israel
  • Japan
  • Singapore
  • South Korea
  • Australia
  • New Zealand
  • 4 of the 5 permanent UN Security Council members (excluding China)
• What is included in the Global South

  • African countries
  • Latin American countries
  • Developing countries in Asia, including the Middle East
  • BRIC countries (Brazil, India, China)
• GDP per capita


  A tally of all goods and services produced in a country in one year, expressed in US dollars, divided by the country's population
• Unofficial threshold for a developed economy is a GDP per capita of at least $12,000, although some economists believe $25,000 is more realistic
• What makes a nation part of the "Third World"

  • High poverty
  • High child mortality
  • Low economic and educational development
  • Low self-consumption of natural resources
  • Vulnerable to exploitation by large corporations and industrialized nations
  • Less technological advancement
  • Economies dependent on developed countries
  • Unstable governments
  • High fertility rates
  • High gender-related violence
  • Lack of middle class
  • Huge impoverished population and small elite upper class
• Difference in political, economic and geographic makeup of countries complicates the idea of a monolithic Global South
• Globalization has challenged the notion of two economic spheres (North and South)
• Bottom 60 nations of the Global South were thought to be gaining on the North in terms of income, diversification, and participation in the world market
• International free trade and unhindered capital flows across countries could lead to a contraction in the North-South divide
• Some countries in the Global South are developing high levels of South-South aid
• The UN has established its role in diminishing the divide between North and South through the Millennium Development Goals
• Latin America


  A group of countries in South America that share the same language and culture, linked to their common colonizers Spain and Portugal
• Two economic groups in Latin America

  • Pacific Alliance - goal is participatory integration for free mobility in trade
  • Mercosur - goal is competitive integration of national economies into international market